Sen in Chinese / Japanese...

一日千秋 is a Japanese and Chinese proverb about missing someone.

一日千秋 is often used to express how hard it is to wait for someone's return or to be away from someone.

Some will translate this as “one day feels like a very long time” or “waiting for someone (something) is hard.”

You might see this romanized as a single word, Ichijitsusenshuu, or as “Ichijitsu Senshuu” from Japanese.
If you break down the characters one-by-one, we get:
一 = one/a
日 = day/sun (can also represent time or date)
千 = 1000/thousand
秋 = autumn/fall

Together, 千秋 can mean “autumn comes thousand times” (or 1000 years). It can also be read as 1000 periods of time.
However, it relays the idea of heartache as you wait for someone you miss.

This single Chinese character, old Korean Hanja, and Japanese Kanji means: to choose; to pick; to select; to elect; selection; choice; choosing; picking; election.

In Japanese, it can also be the male given name Hitoshi.

In the Buddhist context, it means to choose, or a myriad.

千里眼 is the Chinese word and Japanese Kanji for clairvoyance.

專心 makes a word that means “paying attention with your heart.”

It's often translated as “dedication,” as in “be absorbed in” or “concentrate one's efforts.” It's also used to mean “with the single mind,” “whole-heartedly,” “paying attention,” “undivided attention,” “concentration (-ed),” “engrossed,” “devotionally (listening/watching),” and/or “attentive.”

The first character means “for a particular person, occasion, or purpose,” “focused on one single thing,” “concentrated,” and sometimes, “special.”

The second character means “heart” or “mind” by itself.

My favorite translation, which comes from the Oxford Advanced Chinese/English Dictionary, is, “wholehearted devotion.”

If it seems like the meaning of this word is quite open, you are correct. The context in which the word is used matters a lot. It can mean different things depending on how you use it. This makes it kind of nice as you can decide what this means to you (within some limits). This is always positive in meaning, so even if a Chinese person reads it differently than you, it will still have a good meaning.

In Japanese, they tend to use a variation of the second character which has one less stroke. If you want your calligraphy written this Japanese form, please click on the Kanji shown to the right instead of the button above. Note: Japanese and Chinese people will recognize either form.

See Also:  Faith | Devotion

千差萬別 is used to describe “manifold diversity.”

It literally means “A thousand differences and ten thousand distinctions.”

Other translations include an infinite variety of; multifarious; being extremely varied and wide-ranging.

The third character is written differently in Japanese, so if you order this from the Japanese master calligrapher it will look like 千差万別 instead of 千差萬別.

森 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for forest.

This can also refer to a dense forest-like place or thing. It can also refer to a shrine grove or sacred grove (a forest of religious significance).

錢 is the simplest way to say “money” in Chinese.

It can also mean cash, coins, or currency. It's also a surname, Qian, in China.

This also means coins in old Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji (though they use a slightly alternate form in Japan, as seen to the right). In both Japan and Korea, this can simply mean “one cent.”

On the left side of this character is a radical, which means “gold” (or metal, depending on context).

On the right are two repeated radicals which currently mean “small” or “narrow” but used to kind of mean “tools” or “weapons.”

It's a bit of a stretch, but you could suggest that money = “gold weapons” or “gold tools” in Chinese. Many Chinese people would argue otherwise depending on what they know of or the way they understand the etymology of the right side radical. I've seen some who say it means “industrialized gold,” but I take that to mean “raw gold turned into coins.”

The first Kanji alone means to wash, bathe, primness, cleanse or purify.

The second Kanji means heart, mind, soul, or essence.

Together, these two Kanji create a word defined as “purified spirit” or “enlightened attitude” within Japanese martial arts.

洗心 is one of the five spirits of the warrior (budo) and is often used as a Japanese martial arts tenet. Under that context, it's often defined as a spirit that protects and harmonizes the universe. Senshin is a spirit of compassion that embraces and serves all humanity and whose function is to reconcile discord in the world. It holds all life to be sacred. It is the Buddha mind.

This title will only be familiar to Japanese who practice certain martial arts. Others may not recognize this word at all.

洗心 does not show up as a word in too many Chinese dictionaries, but it can be read and has the same meaning in Chinese.

There is an issue with the first character. The original, and probably most correct version is shown above. However, many dojo documents and other sources have used a more simple first character. Arguments ensue about which version is correct. If you want to be correct in the Japanese language, use the "Select and Customize" button above. If you want to match the Kanji used by your dojo, click the Kanji shown to the right. There is a slightly different meaning with this first character which means before, ahead, previous, future, precedence.

先輩 is a Chinese, Japanese, and old Korean word or title that means elders, senior (at work or school), superior, older graduate, progenitor, or old-timer.

In American dojos, this is sometimes romanized as Sempai.

一刻千金 is a Chinese and Japanese proverb that can be translated as “time is gold,” “every minute counts,” “every moment is precious,” “time is money,” or “precious time.”

戰 means war, battle, or fight.

戰 is often used to title various wars. For instance, if you add the character for “2” before this character, you have the Chinese title for WWII.

In certain contexts, someone can use this word to mean campaign, game, or match.

Written as 戦 in modern Japanese.

Note: In Japan, they tend to use the form shown to the right. If you pick the Japanese master calligrapher, you may get/request this version. It should also be noted that this Kanji is seldom used alone in Japanese.

戦士 is an alternate title for a warrior, soldier, fighter, warrior, guardian, or combatant in Japanese.

戦士 is often romanized as “Senshi” in Japanese.

See Also:  Knight | Army | Marines | Samurai

セン is the name Sen in Japanese (Katakana).

Typically this would be for the Bengali or Indian surname Sen transliterated into Japanese.

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.